The Austrian State Treaty and the International Decision Making Process in 1955

In January 1954, the French embassy in Vienna reported to Paris a conversation between Chancellor Julius Raab and a politician from western Austria concerning the State Treaty. Raab is reported to have said: “I'll swallow everything.”—“Ich fresse alles.”Two questions arise immediately. First: Why was Raab ready to “swallow everything” in order to get the State Treaty? Second: What was this “everything” that Raab was ready to swallow?To the fi rst question. Th e principal aim of Austria's eff orts to obtain the State Treaty was the termination of four-power control and the withdrawal of the occupation troops from Austria— especially, it needs to be stressed, the withdrawal of Soviet forces. We are used to referring to the “allied” occupation of Austria, yet the “Allies” of World War II had not been allies for some time, at least since 1947–48, and certainly not in 1954 or 1955—even if they cooperated correctly in the “Allied Council.” In terms of military strategy, I deem it useful to speak of the “East-West occupation” of Austria because, de facto, the occupation forces had become part of the two military power agglomerations that had come into being in the course of the Cold War. A secret instruction from the British Foreign Office in 1951 noted that, in peace time, the forces of the Western allies in Austria were not under NATO command; in case of war, however, they would be part of the NATO forces. Since military planning in times of peace obviously prepares for the case of war, it is easy to see that the independence from NATO of the Western occupation forces in Austria has to be taken with a grain of salt.